In the News

During the week of Jan. 2, both Munsey Park (MP) and Shelter Rock (SR) Elementary Schools welcomed local luminaries to “Guess Who’s Coming To Read,” an annual program in which members of the community read books to children in grades K-3. As per tradition, the identities of the readers were unknown to the students until the readers walked through their classroom door, making this highly anticipated event even more fun and exciting.

Mrs. Hall-Moran’s second-graders had a healthy appreciation for Dr. Richard Roberts, who is also a Munsey Park grad.

Those who participated in the “Guess Who’s Coming To Read?” program at Shelter Rock were:

NBC’s LX New York featured Manhasset on its Wednesday, Jan. 27, broadcast. LX New York is a live, weekday, lifestyle show produced by LX.TV and hosted by Sara Gore, Siafa Lewis and Michael Flocker.

The NBC truck created a stir while parked in front of Villa Milano on Wednesday, Jan. 27, where LX New York filmed live for its 5 p.m. broadcast. Photo by Pat Grace

Siafa Lewis interviewed the “man on the street” on Plandome Road the day before, for the pre-recorded segment of the program, then filmed live on Wednesday at Villa Milano.

Helen Weitman taped on Plandome Road with Lewis. “He was so comfortable in front of the camera and we were so nervous, but he tried to put us at ease as he asked questions. He asked why we moved here and our experiences living here. We mentioned the strong community feeling and the different aspects of both a neighborhood feeling and access to the city,” said Weitman. On Tuesday NBC also visited the Americana, Young’s Fine Wines and Spirits, Gallery Couture, The Frame Shoppe and interviewed Nancy Morris, State Farm Insurance in front of the gazebo at Mary Jane Davies Park.

Public Information Officer for the town, Sid Nathan, said NBC phoned the town explaining their interest in doing segments on local villages—they had completed one in New Jersey—and had selected Manhasset for another. Nathan put them in touch with community activist Morris.

For the live portion of the show, to take place at a local eatery, Villa Milano on Plandome Road was selected. Owners John and Don Benvenuti, brothers and owners of Villa Milano, said they didn’t have to spiff up very much, as they keep a clean and neat establishment. “What you see is what you get,” Don said with a smile. “It’s very exciting,” he added, “even more exciting to me is when our customers found out about it and were so happy for us. That’s what’s great.”

While making cappuccino Becky Benvenuti explained how exciting it was, “having been here for such a long time (24 years) to see the community enjoying this with us.”

Tables in the restaurant filled up in anticipation of the live cameras. Town Clerk Leslie Gross and Councilwoman Maria Christina Poons settled into a little table in the corner. And there was a table of town staffers who spotted the NBC truck and tower in front of Villa Milano around 4:15 and decided to have a bite when they realized cameras would be rolling.

The staffers—Connie Terry, Dolores Connelley, and Cathy Mizzi—work a short block away at town hall and said they enjoy lunching on pizza at Villa Milano.

What Siafa discovered, shown when the segment aired, is that Manhasset is a village on Long Island with small-town appeal, proximity to New York City and a reputation as a family-friendly community.

NBC chose Manhasset, in the town ofNorth Hempstead, for its profile of a local New York village and Money magazine ranked North Hempstead 46th on its annual list of the 100 best places to live in the Unites States and the second best place for a healthy retirement.

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 3, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch"The O'Reilly Factor"weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET!

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Stossel Matters" segment tonight, our pal John recently gave a speech in front of the Americans for Prosperity group. That's a conservative free market outfit. Well, The New York Times didn't like it. No, they did not, saying it was another example of the conservative bias at FOX News Channel.

Here now, the very, very controversial John Stossel. Before we let you hammer The Times, which you can do as much as you want, you have been following the gambling on the New Jersey gubernatorial race. InTrade.com? What is InTrade.com?

JOHN STOSSEL, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's a Web site. It's run out of Ireland, because it's illegal in America to bet on these things. But Karl Rove may be a genius, but I think the best predictor of elections is where people put their money where their mouths are, and that's InTrade.com. Corzine was as high as 65 percent early this afternoon. Now he's down to 45 percent.

O'REILLY: So 65 percent were voting — were betting on him this afternoon, and now he's under 50 percent?

STOSSEL: Right.

O'REILLY: OK, now, that's just amusement. We're not making anything of that. But Stossel is a strange guy, and this is just what he does.

OK. Now, The New York Times says that this group, Americans for Prosperity, they're some kind of heinous conservative group that were paying you money — I know you gave it to charity — to do what? What were you doing? Why are they after you?

STOSSEL: I make speeches. I make about 25 a year. I've done that for years, and suddenly now that I'm at FOX, critics are leaping to attack me, according to The New York Times. And Americans for Prosperity, I like them. I'm an American. I'm for prosperity. I've discovered, from 40 years of reporting, that what creates prosperity is limited government. And...

O'REILLY: And that's what these people espouse, right?

STOSSEL: And I would like to share that with as many people who want me to speak.

O'REILLY: So they hire you. You fly down, I guess, to Arkansas, right? Do a couple of forums for them. Do they make you sign a paper saying that you hate liberals or something? Do they make you do that?

STOSSEL: No, and...

O'REILLY: Do you have to personally attack people? I don't understand why they're mad at you? So what, you make a speech in front of a group that you respect.

STOSSEL: Well, I'm aligned with this conservative group.

O'REILLY: Didn't you talk...

STOSSEL: Call them conservative; I'd call them libertarian.

O'REILLY: Didn't you talk to this group before you got to Fox?

STOSSEL: Isn't that interesting? When I worked for ABC two months ago, I also made three speeches for this group, but nobody worried about that.

O'REILLY: Nobody cared. Nobody cared then. But now...

STOSSEL: I'm sure somebody cared, but The Times didn't care.

O'REILLY: Now, Mark Feldstein, an associate professor of journalism at George Washington University, said your speaking to a partisan group was "pretty shameful." Why — why is it shameful?

STOSSEL: I guess they believe that all reporters have no opinions, no point of view.

O'REILLY: But you're a commentator now.

STOSSEL: And even before, I was a consumer reporter. I kind of invented it on TV. We made it up as we went along.

O'REILLY: You had an opinion. This product is bad. This is good. Here is hosing you.

STOSSEL: Or go to businesses, "Why are you a crook?"

O'REILLY: Right.

STOSSEL: They loved me then. I won 19 Emmy Awards. Then I got smarter. I saw how the regulation I called for made things worse, didn't help consumers and simple competition was better. And I started praising business and occasionally criticizing regulation. Suddenly, I stopped winning Emmy Awards. A journalism show had me on, and I found they had titled it "Objectivity and Journalism: Does John Stossel Practice Either?" If I'd been quicker, I would have said, "Look at the title of the show. It shows you have a point of view. We all do. I just admit mine."

O'REILLY: OK. I'm siding with The New York Times. I think you're shameful.

STOSSEL: Can't argue with you.

O'REILLY: Now, look, you know what the game is. Now that you're here — and Glenn Beck found this out very quickly when he came over from CNN — when you're here, you're a target. You become a target just by association, because now you work for Fox News. So they're going to find anything that you do, and this is The New York Times, which they hate us, and they're going to put you in the pejorative light. They're going to put you in the negative light just because you work for us. You committed the cardinal sin of all time. You left a liberal network, and you went to a traditional right-leaning network. So you're never, ever going to be liked again by anyone. Does that make you sad?

STOSSEL: Well, I live with these people. They all live in my neighborhood. So that makes me sad.

O'REILLY: Move out to Long Island where I live, because I live with the folks.

STOSSEL: I like taking the subway to work.

O'REILLY: You're a pansy. Come out to Long Island, all right? The best pizza in the world: Villa Milano in Manhasset, OK? Come out there. They're regular folks. You won't have to deal with those pinheads on the Upper West Side.

STOSSEL: It's good exercise. Living with the liberals, you get to hear their arguments, fight with them all the time. Keeps me alert.

O'REILLY: OK, but if you do that, you're a fascist. Do you really want to be a fascist, Stossel? Do you really want to be that?

STOSSEL: Someone did come up to me on the street and said, "Are you John Stossel?"

O'REILLY: Yes.

STOSSEL: "I hope you die soon."

O'REILLY: Oh, is that right? You know, that was our boss.

STOSSEL: I don't think so.

O'REILLY: Just a joke. All right. John Stossel, everybody. Stossel.

STOSSEL: Stossel it is.

O'REILLY: Stossel.

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I'm sorry I missed you guys last night but I was transported back in time to 1850 after Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, New York.

Actually, the storm didn't exactly hit us. It made landfall just south of Atlantic City, New Jersey about 100 miles away. But the winds off the ocean were so intense that they killed 18 people here in New York City and at least 40 overall.

The destruction was immediate. Trees and power lines collapsed. Hudson River overflowed into the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. Coastal communities were swamped. Atlantic City, the gambling Mecca under water in many places.

And the machines that we use and depend on collapsed all over the region. Cell phone service gone; land line gone; cable TV out; power to your house nonexistent in many places... that means darkness and candles and whining children.

This was life back in 1850. When it got dark, it got dark. There was no electricity.

But today Americans are so dependent on the machines that this kind of interruption can be devastating. In fact, the power companies estimate it could take up to 10 days to get full power restored in the northeast. You can bet terrorists all over the world are jotting that down in their notebooks.

The sad truth is that America's electrical grid is obsolete and we do not have enough money to put it underground where it belongs.

Also, when there is a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, the phone lines become tied up. It's very difficult to get through even for emergency calls, so people die. The relationship between high tech and our lives is becoming more frightening every week. We now depend... depend on these machines. In fact, gas stations couldn't even pump because the electricity was out.

Food rotted in delicatessens and grocery stores, generators a must these days. But mine didn't work! $10,000... you can imagine how pleased I was with that occurrence.

The good news is that in my town, Manhasset, people rallied as they always do helping their neighbors to clear debris. And the guys are the best pizza place in the world Villa Milano fired up today to feed the folks. This is why I live in that town because patriots live alongside me.

Chances are your town is like that. Most Americans are good people who help their neighbors in times of need. And there will be more of those times down the road especially with America's infrastructure being so fragile.